Heritage

Two articles that were published on different days in my usual daily read have made me think.  The first was written by a lady whom I have never met but whose name I knew before she became as well-known as she is these days.  I knew her as the editor of the Catholic Herald when I worked for another religious newspaper.  I knew her name is Italian but only recently have I learned that she is indeed Italian by birth although she describes England as "her adopted country".  She related how a guest who stayed with her recently - an American  - had several places on his "to see" list, places like Buckingham Palace, which she said are ignored by we British.  She claimed that what we are really ignoring is our heritage, a heritage of which we should be proud.

The second article seemed to be right out of time as it was basically about the 800th anniversary of King John signing the Magna Carta.  But that won't be until June 2015.  Actually, that was largely the point the writer was making.  Given that Magna Carta was the original Bill of Human Rights and is the basis of the constitution for so many countries - including the USA - he was suggesting that "we" should be planning great things to celebrate this anniversary.  But, he suspects, it will pass with barely a nod from the British people as we tend to ignore such anniversaries.

Personally, I think both writers are wrong - at least in part.  I don't think we English do ignore our heritage.  We visit stately homes, cathedrals and the homes of people like Wordsworth, Hardy and Shakespeare.  We note anniversaries  - look at how the Queen's diamond jubillee was celebrated and there was quite a to-do over the 30th anniversary of the invasion of the Falkland Islands  (and I'm sorry to say that there remains some bitterness over the American attitude to that) and the 60th anniversary of D-Day.  On the other hand, we are so accustomed to many of these things - Magna Carta, habeus corpus, buildings both magnificent and quaint - that we tend to pay them little attention.  Then there is also the fact that the English, by tradition, are a reserved people who don't wear their hearts on their sleeves.  Well, not all the time.  But come the occasion, we are as proud of our heritage as anyone else.  And we probably have better reason.

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The mention of Magna Carta reminds me that when we hosted a visit from some American Lions, we arranged a trip to Windsor, stopping off at Runnymede where Manga Carta was signed.  There is a memorial close by which was erected by the American Bar Association.